It is known that in relation to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) OFDMA downlink channel the eNodeB Multiple Access Control (MAC) scheduler is arranged to allocate time/frequency downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) resources among a plurality of UE devices based upon a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) report received from the UE devices. Such allocation from the eNodeB MAC scheduler can also be determined by other factors such as Quality of Service (QoS) requirements and priorities of the UE devices and buffer occupancy in eNodeB MAC for the UE devices. It is further known that the eNodeB MAC scheduler can be arranged to adopt one of two scheduling schemes. A localised scheduling scheme is employed for slow-moving UE devices, whereas a distributed scheduling scheme is employed for fast-moving UE devices. The eNodeB MAC scheduler selects the particular scheduling scheme that it considers most appropriate for the particular UE based upon CQI reports received from the UE.
The frequency/time allocation within OFDMA is achieved on the basis of resource blocks, wherein one block contains the plurality of sub-carriers. For the above-mentioned localised scheduling, consecutive sub-carriers are employed, whereas for the distributed scheduling, non-consecutive sub-carriers are allocated to a resource block.
However, it is considered that the current selection and employment of the aforementioned scheduling schemes exhibits disadvantageous limitations in view of the potentially high signalling overhead that can arise in uplink and due to degradation of overall system performance that can be experienced.